"They can't?" Raven said finally. "But then how did she pass it on at all?"
"Magic is tricky," Shine said, putting her hand to her chest sadly. "It does what it's designed to do...and more than that. I can't be sure of this 100%, but, I think that they went to Summer--and she couldn't hold them. Perhaps it turned her two abilities against themselves. In a way she got them, but in another way, she couldn't...not without dying--or destroying them...so she gave them to Vara. Whether that was the cause directly of her eyes, or simply she took fate into her own hands, I can't say...but it would mean the whole transfer was very unstable. Vara's already got problems, but it wasn't that bad until she got the power. She just has said that boosting Aura makes it worse...but the nature of how you get something changes it, so if that is true...the very way she got it could be part of what made it so much worse for her. The Summer Powers are now broken. It happens when you try to control a thing that should not be so controllable."
Qrow rubbed his face and let out a sigh. "The powers themselves could have killed her."
"It's just a theory," Shine said, "but...sadly not an unfounded one. That is a reason why I am nervous about Cinder dying."
"What?" Winter said.
"Oh..." Raven said, looking at her oddly. "Cinder hates Ruby, so if Ruby killed her or was near when she was killed, she might get the powers--and if they truly aren't compatible with Silver-Eyed warriors, Ruby could..."
"Die," Qrow said in a horrified tone.
"Oh...no," Winter gasped. "Just...for that?"
"It might not happen," Shine said. "And I assure you if we were close by, we probably could stop that transferring to people before it got that far, but we can't be everywhere, and Ruby is now under our protection and our master as well... It may be just as Pyrrha could resist, she could. I have other reasons for sparing Cinder, but if I needed one that was not purely on principle, that would be it. There are usually several reasons to do things."
Qrow shook his head.
"We could all just make sure it's someone else who kills her," Raven said.
"Raven, we couldn't actually be sure that would work," Shine said reprovingly. "Cinder might still blame Ruby for it. There is no guarantee whatsoever. And even if it did happen, is risking it a good idea? That is also why Ruby killing Cinder herself is a bad idea, and I would prefer if you all didn't encourage her to think of it."
"I wish you'd said so before," Winter said.
"Freaking Ruby out more didn't seem like a good idea," Shine said. "But it is probably time to tell her this. She took the news about Summer hard, and you may not believe it, but I actually don't enjoy adding to the reasons you all worry. But this is rotten from beginning to end, and I can't change that except by fixing it our way. If you constantly refuse our help, I literally can do nothing. So causing more fear...it's a double-edged sword. The more we tell you, the more it seems like we're the only way you can be helped--but if you resented us for that, then we move farther away, not closer. I want to earn your trust without having to use this kind of emotional manipulation. But it's not fair to keep it back now that we have so much reason to think it's correct. Salem has already found some way to combine the effect of the Silver Eyes with Grimm--but I saw what she made; she grafted over that person. It lacked some of the instincts of other Grimm. Salem can't control them entirely either, because it's impossible. But just because something is impossible doesn't mean that attempting to do it is not harmful. That's the thing about us... I told you our power can't be stolen, and that was right--but attempting to do so can give someone dark power, because there is always dark power out there just waiting to latch on to a foolish host--much the same way Salem might not have been able to make herself die by jumping into a grimm pond, but that doesn't mean it didn't damage her in another way. Things do what they are intended to do, even if it's in a twisted way."
Shine tugged her hair. "She is the amalgamation of light and dark powers of this world--but the thing is, no such compromise exists with our powers. You cannot be both what we are and serve the enemy. That is not that the gods are, in fact, good. If they were truly opposites, Salem's power from one would override the other. But instead they fused. The gods are brothers--that makes sense that they could fuse--but that creation would be only a monster. It only ever is. But our God's power would swallow any other power whole. Quite literally. If you want to know why we haven't done more, it is because we can only destroy. You said before, Qrow, that none of our methods have been enough to stop this--that is because we would have to entirely stop it. Mitigating the results is something we can't do forever. We're either pushing it out altogether, or we're doing nothing. There is no compromise."
She paused again.
"There's a passage about that, right?" Wally said.
"'...What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?'" Shine quoted at once. [2 Corinthians 6:14]
"The god of darkness..." Winter rubbed her hands suddenly. "Magic...it is inside of us. But it is not in you, not even in the form of a Semblance. The difference between you and us goes deeper than we had imagined."
"Yes and no," Shine said. "Magic is just a blanket term. It would be better to call what you have Dark Powers, because they are literally from the god of darkness. Only, the god of light is not much better--but he is a copy of our God, in that our God is also called the Lord of Light...and the thing about a copy is it's usually at least partially convincing. But, as we said before, they could settle on things if they were both good, or both evil...or maybe just both good. Evil can disagree with itself, I suppose, and still be evil."
"Getting a little off subject though," Wally reminded her.
"Right, sorry," Shine said. "To shake this, you'd have to be recreated...which is what we are all about. Every person can be born twice. Once naturally, and once of the spirit. But in simple terms, you'd just call it being good or evil. The real difficulty is that we have different ideas of what goodness even is. And I'm not jibing with your god of light's definition. Balance is not a good name for it."
There was a long pause while they thought about this more.
"Does that mean that in the end, we were all going to have to choose this?" Winter said. "To win?"
Wally and Shine exchanged yet another look....This time it looked like Wally kind of knew where this was going.
"Nothing can be forced on you by us," Shine said slowly. "It might seem as if I'm trying to overawe you into agreeing with us...but there will be no halfhearted agreements at the end. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, until what remains is what cannot be shaken. That's something that I think of here. All of this is a free choice. But it can't be denied either that we have laid out for you what is true. But you do not have to agree that it is true. Not that you shouldn't, but because we aren't allowed to make that call for you. I think all I can say is that you cannot win with us helping you any other way but the way we're allowed to win. And these rules were set in place long before I or Wally were even born. They are ancient, but they are immovable. That said, there is a grace period, I think, which is why we have helped you till now. At some point you have to pick. But we're running out of time to bat this around. Ozpin must make a choice about using Cinder, about the Relics being explored or not. Salem will not wait long or at all. Either you serve your gods...or you are free. Freedom, however, does not mean you serve nothing. It means you get to choose what to serve. Till now you have had no choice. In a way, we made you freer just by showing up...but freedom means you are responsible for your own actions. It's frightening. It was easier when you had no choice. And ours looks flimsy enough because this world has always been ruled, as far as you know, by our two little pretenders. That is why the odds are against Wally and I. I've always known that." She hugged her sides. "But it's our job, nonetheless, to offer. I hope I have done it the best way I could. I'm sure we're not perfect."
"I know I'm not," Wally said. "But I think even if that's true, there was no way this was going to be easy."
"I'm finding it kind of a stark contrast," Shine said. "Pardon the pun. Because anything Ozpin does is going to be swayed by his history. It was going to be a clean break or nothing. I had hoped this conversation wouldn't come up till you all were ready--but that's...kind of the problem. No one is ever really ready. We're just...open. That's all.
"'For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off... But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it...I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live'." [Deuteronomy 30: 11, 14, 19]
She finished the quote with a somber look. There seemed nothing else to say.
"It's late," Wally said suddenly.
"We should turn in," Shine said.
The other three looked at them and each other.
"About the Fall Relic," Shine said, almost as an afterthought, "I think we need to wait at least a couple days to get it. Cinder is not fully recovered either. No telling if it'll even work. I'm surprised she's agreed to wait that long. Give you two a chance to recover also. And sort things out. I propose we use that time to think. And if you have any more questions, we can try to answer them."
"All right," Winter agreed willingly. "But may I ask, Miss Likstar...without specifying what it is, do you have a plan to stop Salem?"
Qrow stiffened. That was just what they'd said Ozpin--and he'd said no.
Raven could also be audibly heard holding her breath.
Wally glanced at Shine too--wait, did he not know?
Shine looked at Winter for a long moment.
Then, very distinctly, she said, "I know what will stop Salem. It may not be an entire plan yet. I have a few different ideas in my mind. They will depend on your actions, what I do. I never promised to defeat Salem. If it's given to us to do it, then we'll do it. But there is something to consider: That just as Alicia has been telling Oscar through those visions he's having, defeating Salem is not the focus you should have. I can promise you only two things. The first is, Salem can be defeated. All things can be defeated that are like her. The second is, you are only going to get to that point once something other than Salem is your main concern. She has never been our main concern, and so to me, stopping her is not an issue. But we must work through you if it's going to matter to your world once we're gone. Worse things than Salem can take her place if something better doesn't. That is up to you. Does that answer your question?"
Raven was on the point of asking if that meant she actually knew how to right now, or just that she thought she could figure it out--but when she looked at Qrow, he shook his head like, "Don't even bother."
"I'll be honest with you guys," Wally said, feeling a bit guilty, "I probably should have said this ages ago, but I have no clue how to stop Salem, personally. Shine is the one with the ideas."
"You would know if you needed to know," Shine said. "After all, I only know more because of more experience."
"Right, so I'm still learning," Wally said. "But I've always been able to stop any villain who threatened my world, and I'd like to think that Salem is no different. She does freak me out, kind of, more than Shine. Shine is fearless."
Shine looked embarrassed. "That's not entirely true," she muttered.
"Well, you are when it comes to evil people," Wally said. "Me? I found her creepy. But nonetheless, I'm not going to back down for that. That's not something I do. I've always stuck by my friends even if it meant dying with them. We're not just going to abandon you guys either, not if you want us here. You can be sure of that."
He shrugged. "And hey, I'm not done fighting yet. I hope you guys aren't either. Just because it looks like we've hit a wall doesn't mean we really have--and sometimes you can just phase through the wall if you're fast enough."
"Somehow, while I know you meant that literally, that seems to be exactly what might need to happen," Shine said.
"Oh, really? I thought it sounded stupid, but it was all I could think of," Wally said.
"Yeah, just don't undercut it by saying it sounds stupid," Shine said. "Then it was totally cryptic enough to be a World Walker thing to say."
"Whoa, I'm getting the hang of this? Sweet," Wally said.
Winter suddenly laughed.
That surprised them all.
But she shook her head. "The two of you are such...oddities. But in some ways, I think I've never understood you so well as right now."
"In a good way or a bad way?" Wally asked.
"I suppose that remains to be seen." Winter was her usual arch self. "We should all rest. Try to think about this tomorrow."
"Fine," Raven said, tightly. "I guess we can't do anything tonight. But the Summer Relic still has to be put away."
"You need to rest more first," Shine said.
"The Grimm will come for it," Qrow said.
"They might, but at least with us here, they're going to be more hesitant than before," Shine said. "I don't know if we'll counter it, but we can seal the house, make it harder for them to find it."
"Let's do that then," Wally said. "I don't want another swarm of evil flies attacking us during the night. I haven't slept right since before we got kidnapped."
They broke up the meeting.
* * *
Shine was not done with odd encounters for the night, though. She went in the kitchen to get some water and a late night snack after getting more ready for bed.
She found Cinder in there, attempting to get food out of a higher cupboard--probably one she thought no one would notice.
With one hand, she was having more of a time pulling down which box it was in. Cinder wasn't actually that tall...
Then it almost slipped off the edge of the corner--Shine summoned it.
Cinder turned to give her an angry look.
Shine put it on the counter.
"There," she said. "Easier that way."
"What do you want?" Cinder said sourly.
"Actually I'm glad you're still up. I have an update." Shine was annoying Cinder further by talking to her normally still. No fear in this woman. No disgust, even, anymore. Just indifference.
Cinder hated indifference above all other emotions when it came to herself.
"Given that all of you Maidens are taking longer to recover than we thought, we're probably going to be here for a couple more days," Shine said firmly. "I am sure you don't want to spend another second with us, but since you know that you can't go back to Salem yet, and you can't go out there with her hunting the Maidens indiscriminately, I assume I don't need to go over why you'll have to live with it."
Cinder glared at her. "And then you'll lengthen it again until you get what you want?"
"No, I intend to get the Relic out," Shine said. "But your best chance of stealing it is if you're at full strength, isn't it? If you're as weak as you are now, even if it works, you're an easy target. And after all...once you have what Salem wants, she might not have any use for you anyway."
Cinder continued to glare at her. "What do you mean by that? You want me as weak as possible."
"I suppose I shouldn't pretend to you that I'm not sorry really that your powers are not back," Shine said. "But for that you can hardly blame me. Do you have complaints about your treatment so far? I think we've been quite generous."
"Oh, sure," Cinder scoffed.
"Do you ever actually think about why you're so scornful?" Shine said, grabbing the glass she'd come in here for. "Isn't it just because you don't understand kindness or honor? Not because they are really anything to scoff at? There's nothing inherently funny about restraint for the sake of principle. Unless you think that is the joke--I can't help you then."
"Don't try to talk around me," Cinder said. "I'll figure out what you really want sooner or later. And then I'll kill you."
"Will you?" Shine sounded amused by that idea.
"I will--or the others," Cinder said. "Whoever's in my way. I'll get both the other Relics also... Why did you leave the Summer one behind?"
"After the threat you just made, you can't expect me to answer that," Shine shrugged. "You need to work on your espionage. Pro tip--maybe don't make threats that clearly show you're not on our side if you want people to trust you with critical information. I guess I can't blame you for thinking we're that stupid, since Ozpin never seemed to notice that a 20+ year old was posing as a student at Beacon with two juniors, but I assure you I'm not that dumb."
"We'll see," Cinder said, not very convincingly.
"Honestly the stupidity of these people often amazes me." Shine took an apple out of the fridge. "I'm starting to think that using dust must have an effect on people's intelligence. Glad I don't need it."
Cinder would have found that funny if someone else had said it...and if that didn't include her.
"You know, what you said on the ship," she changed the subject, "about how you got your power...you're so proud for not earning it. But that must mean you couldn't earn it if you wanted to."
"You're completely right," Shine said, without a hint of shame. In fact, she looked happy, to Cinder's bewilderment. "I couldn't earn it. That's what makes it so wondrous."
"It can't be that special then," Cinder said.
"I suppose not if you mean rare," Shine said. "Anyone can have it. But really, being the only one with power is a lonely thing. I suppose that stuck with you, did it? No one has ever given you anything for free, have they?"
She hit a nerve there. Cinder's expression darkened. "Why would I take anything for free? I can get it myself. Anyway, nothing is actually free. I bet you paid for it some other way."
"Hmm..." Shine said. "Well, not exactly. God will not be bought. He cannot be bribed. In His words, 'If I was hungry I would not tell you.' What can we give Him? He's full. He is infinite. Any power from Him is a gift, not a trade... All we give back is ourselves...and even that, it's not as if we cease to be--more like putting a puzzle piece into the right place. I guess you don't understand that."
She was right. Cinder didn't understand that at all.
"No one would just give out power for free," she said.
"Didn't that friend of yours give you training for free?" Shine asked. "What did it benefit them to help you?"
"Didn't stop them from trying to capture me later," Cinder said. "I still had to kill him. To pay for freedom."
"I guess I could see why you'd see it that way," Shine said, frowning. "It's dark and twisted, but for you that makes sense."
This insult annoyed Cinder yet again--she hadn't realized that the reason Shine annoyed her so much was because she knew deep down that what she did was despicable, and that Shine aggravated the only thing of her conscience that was still left.
It was actually the same reason Emerald annoyed her. She thought of what she'd sacrificed of her soul in order to get where she was.
[And that is why truly kind people always annoy abusive people.]
Shine knew this already. She could read it like a book.
Actually she thought it was a good sign. Pure indifference would have been a worse sign from Cinder than any kind of anger. At least that was a human emotion.
"You know, it's funny," she said, "you sound kind of like Salem... Oscar said that, when she killed Ozpin, she said she finally had freedom. You really are alike."
Cinder had no comeback for that. It was pretty hard to deny.
"And she is a goddess," she said, by way of sounding confident again.
Shine laughed. "That hag? Oh, no, Cinder. Salem is not a goddess."
She gestured flippantly. "She is baser than an animal, honestly. You think powerful magic makes you like a goddess? Please. We are closer to gods than she is."
"That is crazy."
"Is it?" Shine said. "We are the children of God, are we not? What else can be like God but something that is born from God? Salem is not. She is born from those two fools... She is like them. She is as self centered as the light one and as bitter as the dark one, from all I heard. And I think they left her here on purpose to cause chaos. And it certainly has worked. But you know what? We plan to break that."
"And what, we all live happily ever after?" Cinder mocked her.
[Yes, that's a joke at the expense of the Cinderella story--I have no clue who thought evil Cinderella was good idea.]
"Oh, no," Shine said.
Cinder didn't expect that. "So you'd kill us all?" With more surprise.
"Not at all," Shine said. "The heroes are a bit naive, Cinder. They think that Salem's death would bring this world peace. But it won't. Maybe you'll understand this--you're angry enough. Removing one obstacle does not bring peace."
"No..." Cinder agreed with that--but she thought this was a trap.
"The struggle will go on between good and evil as long as this planet exists," Shine said, not as if she was sorry about it. "But to each of us is given one thing to do about it. One thing to move it to one side or the other. Who knows? Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, even your actions may end up pushing goodness forward. God is not stopped. But it can cost us along the way. It's better to do good. I can't promise peace to the world. Indeed, 'I did not come to bring peace but a sword' is what our master said."
She held up her sword suddenly.
Cinder backed up--that thing radiated a power she didn't like at all.
Shine shrugged and put it away again.
"But Salem perhaps has been a trial on this world long enough all the same," she said more evenly. "Every trial has to end sooner or later, and a new one will take its place, but perhaps one that can be fought more fairly this time. Even that would save thousands of lives, so I think it's worth it. You may not agree. Luckily, it's not up to you. But you could be part of it--or part of the problem."
"Don't think I'm going to join your band just because you made a speech," Cinder said. "I don't believe a word you say."
"More the pity." Shine just refused to be bothered by her. "Well, offer is still open if you want to reconsider it. I'm thinking of you here. You're going to die otherwise. Well, goodnight."
She walked out of the kitchen without another glance.
She made Cinder so angry!
She kicked the cupboard furiously.
But this availed nothing. No one was here to frighten, and she only hurt herself.
She was going to kill Shine, she thought. No one got to make her feel small and get away with it.
But her words about how even if Cinder did that, she'd despise her to the last moment she was alive still haunted her.
What was even the point then...
Well, she was just a distraction. Cinder just needed to get the Relic and get out of there. Salem could fix her arm thing, and then she'd come back for the Maidens and get the last Relic, and they'd win. It was simple.
Granted...how she'd get the Relic from this many people was still a mystery, but she'd just have to make an opening.
* * *
The next day, the team was informed that they'd be taking a few more days to recover.
Surprisingly, some of them already had an idea of how to spend this.
"Since we're so close," Neptune said, "I was thinking of hopping on the train to Argus to visit my family."
"Is that good idea right now?" Blake said.
"Hey, not all of us have our parents here," Neptune said. "It's just one day's ride from here. Not even that. I take the morning train, I come back at night. I mean, who knows when we'll get to see them again."
That could be taken two ways. Suppose they never saw them again?
"Actually...I should visit my parents also," Pyrrha said. "It's like he says...I don't know when I'll get another chance, and it's just a 4 or 5 hour train ride. If we're not doing anything here..."
"I could visit Sap again," Jaune said. "I guess she'd like to know we survived after Atlas fell."
"Oh, gosh, they don't know," Nora said. "Wow."
"Why not?" Sun said. "I mean, what are we going to do in Haven?"
"Should we go by ourselves though? What if we get arrested?" Ren said.
"Oh...right...we did something illegal that last time we were there," Jaune said.
Winter, who was sipping tea at the actual table, while they were standing by the counter, gave them a cool look.
Then she said, "I wouldn't mind accompanying you."
"Why?" Nora asked.
"Simple: Argus has what is left of the organized Atlas military," Winter said. "Any hope of replenishing our forces is going to come from there, clearly. I need to confer with them. Hopefully they have heard word that we survived by now, but direct confirmation would be better than hearsay. Also I need to clear up that misunderstanding about the stolen ship you all caused."
They looked guilty.
"As a side note--" Winter glanced at her cup. "--Salem would hardly expect us to head to Argus."
"Should we take all of the magical stuff with us?" Jaune meant the Relic but didn't want to say it in case Cinder was close enough to hear.
"If we can't put it in the thing yet," Pyrrha said. "But then we put Argus at risk."
"And we really don't need another train crash," Nora said.
"Ugh," Weiss said. "And you can't go to Brunswick farms this time."
They all shuddered.
"What happened there?" Winter inquired.
"Apathy," Ruby said, "these...ghoul things that made everyone tired and not want to fight."
"Apathy..." Winter said. "I've...only ever heard of Grimm like that. I thought they were a myth."
"Why would you think that?" Jaune said.
"Because Grimm that can affect people's minds were something people thought was made up in order to deter people away from property," Winter said. "But apparently it was not groundless. You actually saw these creatures?"
"Saw them? I incinerated them!" Ruby cried. "They're awful. They look like big skeletons."
"I've never heard of this either." Shine looked up. "I mean, Oscar mentioned something like that, but not in detail... So you do have Grimm that affect emotions after all. I thought it was weird that none of them did."
"Let me guess, the ones where you come from do," Ren said dryly.
"As a matter of fact that is primarily what they do," Shine said.
They all shuddered again.
"Wow, ones that control your mind? Great, we needed to worry about that." Wally was stacking pancakes on top of each other.
"Leave the package with us," Shine said finally. "I think you all could go without it and be safe enough. And I'd just as soon have Winter away from here while she's recovering if there are more attacks. Perhaps you should take Vara with you."
"If she's game for it," Ruby said.
Oscar looked up.
"I've been wondering if I should visit my aunt," he said awkwardly. "I mean...the train ride isn't that far to there either... I took it to Haven before, and it took a day. I feel bad not letting her know what happened to me...and if we aren't going to do anything else for a few days anyway...I mean, just sitting around his house isn't that productive."
[Shade at Volume 5? Actually I didn't really care about that. I thought it made sense. But plenty of people hated it.]
Shine glanced at Oscar with concern.
"But you can't go alone," Blake said. "Even if your aunt is okay with you just leaving again, Salem could still look for you."
"Maybe you guys should go with him," Pyrrha said to Shine and Wally.
Oscar looked nervous.
"I'm sorry, but Wally and I have to stay here with Raven," Shine said. "And she won't be leaving here. We need to work on recovery. I'd rather Oscar not go...but surely there is someone who could go with him if he insists."
"Where does your aunt live?" Theo asked.
"Out in the land outside of Mistral," Oscar said, "to the east."
"Oh?" Theo said. "Actually I was thinking of swinging by there myself."
"You were?" Vara said.
"Yeah, my uncle has some family out there," Theo said. "I've not seen them in 20 years, but after all that happened, maybe I should. Hate to leave loose ends."
"Do they know about Ozpin?" Vara asked.
"No, not that I know of," Theo said. "But kin is kin. And you never know what might be important to know later."
"In that case, I should just go with you," Vara said. "Salem will never think I'd go out there. And any Grimm are probably going to be pretty small. Besides, it'll be like the time we met."
"It would, kind of," Theo said.
"Ugh." Qrow made a face.
"Should anyone else go?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe you should," Yang said. "We should keep Silver-Eyed people away from where we know Tyrian is going to be."
"You want to come to Argus with us?" Pyrrha asked Emerald, who glanced up. "Just because...well, Tyrian will also be looking for you."
"I...I mean, I guess," Emerald said. "Mercury?"
"Whatever," he muttered.